Monday, November 17, 2014

Tuesday is the first day of elimination at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico, and there will only be singles matches. Notably there are more players in Women's Singles than Men's Singles, although only 16 to 15, respectively.

Defending gold medalists Mexicans Paola Longoria and Alvaro Beltran are the top seeds in Women's and Men's Singles, respectively. Team-mates Samantha Salas and Daniel De La Rosa on the other side of the draw from the top seeds, and it's easy to imagine all Mexico finals come Friday.

Four years ago Beltran did defeat a team-mate in the final, as he beat Gilbert Mejia to win gold. Bronze went to Cesar Castro of Venezuela and Simon Perdomo of the Dominican Republic.

This year, Costa Rica and Colombia look poised to get to the podium, as the two players from those countries could face off in the quarterfinals with the winners into the semi-finals and onto the podium.

In 2010, Longoria beat Claudine Garcia of the Dominican Republic in the final, and Anna Maldonado of Puerto Rico in the semis; Garcia beat Jessica Parrilla of Mexico in the other semi.

This year, Colombia Cristina Amaya could meet Longoria in the final, as she did in last year's World Games final. Of course, Amaya will probably have to beat Samantha Salas to get there, but that's possible.

In the other semi, Longoria will likely face either Ana Gabriela Martinez of Guatemala, the World Junior U14 Champion, or Colombian Maria Gomez.